Radiator Springs Ride Strategy

[Leopardstars]

On our first day at DCA (last Monday in March so during start of Spring Break season) we want to do Radiator Springs and see Frozen at 12:30. We don't qualify for EMM and it's a EMM day. Here are two scenarios I'm trying to decide between:

Scenario 1:
Get Radiator Springs FP
Ride TSMM
Ride Mickey's Fun Wheel
Return to Cars Land
Ride Radiator Springs if in FP window
If not ride other Cars Land Rides
Anna and Elsa Meet & Greet
Frozen at 12:30
(Note: I am willing to skip rides and return later if needed to make the 12:30 show)

Scenario 2:
Go straight to Radiator Springs and get in standby line
Ride Luigi's
Ride Mater's
Anna and Elsa Meet and Greet
Fill time as needed until Frozen at 12:30

Am I crazy to consider the Radiator Springs standby line? I keep going through both scenarios and decided I need some outside input to help me decide once and for all.

 

[bumbershoot]

My first input is to not go to the extra hour park if you don't have it.

And then my question is "who is in your party?" Because it's my family we ride RSR using the single rider line. We don't do standby or fp for it. And I highly recommend if it if you're like us with old-enough and brace-enough people AND you don't mind riding with strangers and/or you find that meeting new people during the day enhances your family time because you can talk about the cool people you met.

 

[AladdinRapunzelTink]

I've done both. I feel like we get more done, earlier by getting the RSR FP first. Last week we rode TSMM, the Fun Wheel and CS before it was time to use our RSR FP (however this was on a day with no EMH).

 

[RE1333]

Looks like you can expect it to be fairly crowded that day based on spring break and the operating hours Disney has scheduled for that day. By the time you can get to Radiator Springs, I would bet the stand by line will already be very long. I would recommend going straight for the fast passes at park open. The line for that looks daunting at first, but it moves quickly once they start distributing fast passes at park open. You can monitor the return times from the Disneyland app.

I would also strongly consider using the Radiator Springs single rider line. It moves very very quickly. You might even be able to ride multiple times depending on how busy it is.

 

[Leopardstars]

My first input is to not go to the extra hour park if you don't have it.

And then my question is "who is in your party?" Because it's my family we ride RSR using the single rider line. We don't do standby or fp for it. And I highly recommend if it if you're like us with old-enough and brace-enough people AND you don't mind riding with strangers and/or you find that meeting new people during the day enhances your family time because you can talk about the cool people you met.

Our party would be me, DH, our 5 year old DD and maybe my Dad (not sure if it would be a non-Park day for him).

Looks like you can expect it to be fairly crowded that day based on spring break and the operating hours Disney has scheduled for that day. By the time you can get to Radiator Springs, I would bet the stand by line will already be very long. I would recommend going straight for the fast passes at park open. The line for that looks daunting at first, but it moves quickly once they start distributing fast passes at park open. You can monitor the return times from the Disneyland app.

I would also strongly consider using the Radiator Springs single rider line. It moves very very quickly. You might even be able to ride multiple times depending on how busy it is.

I'm expecting it to be really busy since touring plans puts it as an 8 of 10. We might not have access to US data on our cell phones, so I'm willing to work around the FP return time we get. I'll have to watch the app this week to get an idea.

 

[Disn3yVision]

If it is an early magic hour day and you don't have EMH, I would definitely choose option 1. RSR standby line will already to too long by the time you get there.

 

[agamble]

I would go with option one. We've never stood in the standby for RSR. It's pretty easy to get a FP for it, so I don't see a reason to wait in line. Also, Toy Story will be less busy at opening on an EMH day than RSR, which will already have a full line of guests when you get there. We typically hit Toy Story first on our DCA days. Not sure how this will change for us with FP coming, but most likely we'll continue to go there first and save our FP for RSR.

 

[lcp9]

Everything is dependent on how busy it is, (and we are typically there on "slower" days"), but we have purposefully waited to get FP until return time was later...you might be careful getting a FP early, if the lines are long enough it might throw a wrench into your frozen plans. So to be extra sure you might want to wait until return time is showing late afternoon. Just a thought.

 

[pharmama]

I agree with the others who say to get a FP, not standby as the line will already be decent due to EMH.

Are you planning to spend the whole day in DCA? If so, I would definitely aim for a FP return time after Frozen or even later. IMO, RSR is even better at night and we often wait to get our RSR FPs until the return window will be after dark (do keep in mind how this might interact with any plans you have for WoC, of course)

 

[disneyfirsttimer18]

Definitely get the FP for the Racers. We were there the first week of August, got in the stand-by line first thing on an EMH morning, waited 10 minutes and when we got off, the standby wait time was 45 minutes. That was just EMH guests. Crazy!

 

[Keels]

I would grab FP for RSR and then knock out as many rides as I can before it's my FP time.

PERSONALLY, my favorite time to ride RSR is around dusk when all the neons are lit up in CarsLand ... so, I'll generally stalk the app to see when that timeframe is coming up for a FP and then head over to grab one.

 

[BriannaRuth]

There have been lots of times when we've been there that the Wheel of Death has not been open right away. Same is true for TSMM; for some reason it often breaks first thing and opens late. So keep that in mind and plan for an alternative. But I also say #1.

 

[Leopardstars]

Thanks everyone! Our plan is to stay as long as the 5 year old can handle. I think I'll build 2 plans. One for seeing the first frozen show and one for the 2:30 one.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

I would grab FP for RSR and then knock out as many rides as I can before it's my FP time.

PERSONALLY, my favorite time to ride RSR is around dusk when all the neons are lit up in CarsLand ... so, I'll generally stalk the app to see when that timeframe is coming up for a FP and then head over to grab one.

Do you have any idea on average when the dusk or evening times pop up? We're wanting to ride at night for SURE..and we were considering getting fp's and then hopping in standby but if evening won't be up yet maybe we'll ride first and then get fp

 

[agamble]

Do you have any idea on average when the dusk or evening times pop up? We're wanting to ride at night for SURE..and we were considering getting fp's and then hopping in standby but if evening won't be up yet maybe we'll ride first and then get fp

If you want evening, ride first then get FP. The FP disappear faster or slower depending on crowds. We haven't been in almost two years, but the last time we went the FP lasted until after noon.

 

[Aladora]

Do you have any idea on average when the dusk or evening times pop up? We're wanting to ride at night for SURE..and we were considering getting fp's and then hopping in standby but if evening won't be up yet maybe we'll ride first and then get fp

Keep an eye on the Disneyland app for evening return times.

As of right now (10:05am) the FP return time is 2:45-3:45 for RSR. I would estimate that evening times will be up within the hour.

 

[pharmama]

Evening return times are highly variable. In the past couple years I've gotten evening RSR passes at 9:30am, 11:30am and once even at 1:30pm. It all depends on how busy the parks are, park opening time etc. Agree with the suggestion above to monitor on the app, possibly even for a couple of days prior to your planned RSR day (though this may not be a good gauge if you're planning a weekend day and watching slower weekdays. If is a busy week too- as many upcoming spring break weeks will be-this might still give you an idea but I'd still plan for earlier on the weekends).

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Keep an eye on the Disneyland app for evening return times.

As of right now (10:05am) the FP return time is 2:45-3:45 for RSR. I would estimate that evening times will be up within the hour.

I didn't even realize fastpass return times were even on the app. I guess I didn't explore it enough!

So when you have a fastpass you can't have any other fastpasses at all or just none within that return time window?

 

[agamble]

I didn't even realize fastpass return times were even on the app. I guess I didn't explore it enough!

So when you have a fastpass you can't have any other fastpasses at all or just none within that return time window?

You can get another FP when either the time has come up for your FP use OR it has been two hours since you pulled the FP. The FP ticket will tell you. EX You pull Space Mountain FP at 9 for 9:40-10:40 you can pull another at 9:40 before riding Space Mountain. OR You pull a RSR FP for 12:00-1:00 at 9AM, you can pull another at 11:00, even though you cannot go on RSR yet.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

You can get another FP when either the time has come up for your FP use OR it has been two hours since you pulled the FP. The FP ticket will tell you. EX You pull Space Mountain FP at 9 for 9:40-10:40 you can pull another at 9:40 before riding Space Mountain. OR You pull a RSR FP for 12:00-1:00 at 9AM, you can pull another at 11:00, even though you cannot go on RSR yet.

Ok awesome, thank you!